Lots of people want to criticize the Patriots for their decision to select Aaron Hernandez in the fourth round of the 2010 draft, but I can't and won't join them. If I did, I feel like I'd be a hypocrite.

It's really this simple: I've been hard on the Pats in recent years for not showing enough of a sense of urgency in terms of surrounding—or in some cases keeping—top-shelf talent around quarterback Tom Brady in order to win a Super Bowl. So it would be disingenuous at best to knock them for being aggressive when drafting Hernandez.

The same goes for drafting cornerback Alfonzo Dennard—who was arrested for suspicion of DUI early Thursday in Lincoln, Neb.—last year and even acquiring guys like Albert Haynesworth and Chad Ochocinco a couple years ago. Sure, those trades didn't work out, but ultimately it showed that New England was trying to make some bold moves to help Brady get his fourth Super Bowl ring.

You see, I believe that Brady is not only still the best quarterback in the NFL, but an extremely compelling argument could be made that he is the best player of all time. Yes, you read that correctly. His statistical numbers have been off the charts since his ridiculous 2007 season, but it is the five Super Bowl appearances, three Super Bowl victories and countless division titles and conference championship appearances that really put him over the top.

Conventional wisdom says Aaron Rodgers is the best quarterback in the NFL right now, but the combination of back-to-back losses in the divisional round of the playoffs and his penchant for taking too many sacks make Brady my preferred No. 12 right now.

That's why I knocked the Pats when they traded Richard Seymour to the Raiders in 2009 for a future first-round pick. Maybe he could have made the difference in getting the Patriots to a Super Bowl one of these years? I feel the same way about their tendency to continuously trade down in the draft for more picks or picks in future years. Maybe trading up instead and getting a difference-maker could have netted another Lombardi trophy.

I understand they felt like they were getting value in those transactions, but Brady has only a few years left. At what point does New England realize that fact and make some moves that are geared more toward the present than the future?

Evidently not this offseason. The decision to let uber-productive wide receiver and Brady security blanket Wes Welker leave over relatively little money was mind-boggling. Given how things have unfolded this offseason for the formerly dynamic tight end duo of Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski, the Welker move looks even worse.

That's my problem with the Patriots. Brady, who turns 36 in August, restructured his contract to create cap room, and they reward him by letting his most reliable target walk to one of the chief Super Bowl contenders in the AFC? And then trade down in the draft again?

At least with Hernandez, Dennard and other “character risks” like them, the Patriots were trying to get players who can help the team win right now even though they weren't premium picks. Besides, it is not my place to care about the character of the players the Patriots draft and the risk that they represent to the image of the organization. That's really a decision for the Kraft family and Patriots fans. I'm talking about football and winning championships and maximizing the asset they have in Brady before he is gone.

Not to say the Patriots don't deserve some criticism in the wake of the Hernandez saga that continues to play out on a daily basis. They absolutely do. Their decision to give Hernandez a mammoth contract extension, including the largest signing bonus ever given to a tight end (after just two seasons in the NFL and with two years remaining on his modest rookie deal), makes no sense whatsoever. None.

And that's not just in hindsight. They knew about all of the red flags surrounding Hernandez—ranging from failed drug tests in college to alleged gang affiliations in his Connecticut hometown—when they drafted him in 2010. Hernandez had also been a handful during his time in New England according to various reports, which was hinted at by former teammate Matt Light recently.

Light, who played with Hernandez in 2010 and 2011 before retiring, told the Dayton Daily News, "I never talk about other guys, but I will say I have never embraced—never believed in—anything Aaron Hernandez stood for."

That statement to me was very significant. As a former teammate of Light, I know him to be a high-character guy who, as he noted, never talks out of turn about his teammates. The fact that he did in this case tells me how strongly he felt about Hernandez and what he had seen in their two years together.

That's what makes the recent comments of owner Robert Kraft, who deserves a ton of credit for releasing Hernandez and offering a jersey exchange to fans over the weekend, tough to swallow. Kraft spoke about Hernandez for the first time on Monday and said that the team was "duped" by him. I'm sure that's the case in terms of the organization thinking he was capable of something like murder. And given the contract extension, maybe there is some truth to what he says.

But still, given what a longtime Patriot veteran and stand-up guy like Light said, you know the Patriots had to be aware that some of his predraft concerns were coming to roost in New England. Yet they signed him to a contract extension anyway and deserve all of the venom and vitriol that comes there way as a result.

So, yeah, the Patriots absolutely deserve some criticism. For me, though, as it relates to Hernandez, it will only come as a result of the extension and not the decision to roll the dice and draft him in the first place. I'd be talking out of both sides of my mouth otherwise.

Ross Tucker is a 2001 Princeton graduate who played seven years in the NFL for five different teams before retiring in 2008. He wrote previously for Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and Sports USA before joining The Sporting News in July 2013. You can also listen to the Ross Tucker Football Podcast on Sports USA.